Ailing cedi + Dumsor : EKGS proprietress canvasses bi-partisan solutions
The combination of erratic energy supply to power industries and the ailing health of the cedi should be dealt with by a pool of bi-partisan expertise to ease off the pressure on the national economy and free it for growth.
The counsel comes from the Director of the EKGS Culinary Institute in Accra, Mrs Efua Otua Goode Obeng Kyei who echoed the wailing of business owners and operators on the crippling effects of the two contra-growth developments.
“The twin challenges of the energy crisis and the rapid depreciation of the cedi are taking their toll on every sector of the economy. It is an indisputable fact that a country's development depends on a vibrant industrial sector, since it is that sector that will provide stable employment to the citizenry who, through the payment of taxes, replenish the national kitty for the government to carry out its programmed development.
“But industries are run efficiently when there is adequate and affordable supply of energy. Where the supply is erratic and inadequate, as we are experiencing now in the country, it makes it difficult to engage in any meaningful work to keep industry going,” she said at the 33rd graduation ceremony of the institute which saw 120 students pass out with various culinary skills.
“We have reached a point in the crisis when I think the government must extend a hand to experts in the energy sector, no matter their party affiliation, to tackle the problem head-on before the situation deals a death blow to Ghana's efforts to raise itself from the economic quagmire in which it finds itself.
“The depreciation of the cedi has greatly affected businesses of all kinds, including those in the culinary industry. For us in the industry especially, the problem makes it difficult to plan for the future, since most of the equipment and tools used are imported,” she said.
Mrs Goode said managers of the national economy must urgently arrest the falling cedi and give business people and Ghanaians in general the needed respite.
“It is my considered opinion that when these twin challenges of 'dumsor' and the depreciating cedi are resolved, the economy will bounce back on the path of growth to give a push to businesses and industry.”
Touting the culinary industry as a great potential for job creation for a country facing massive youth unemployment, she said the government could help address the unemployment challenge by consciously extending credit at affordable terms to established culinary outfits so they expand and train more people who will then be able to setup on their own, instead of going to look for non-existent jobs in government institutions.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I think the government must now walk the talk that the private sector is the engine of growth for the economy by formulating policies to reduce high interest rates, so that the private sector can live up to its billing. That is the only way in which we can grow the economy, offer jobs to our youth, fill the national kitty with taxes and expand the economy. The present situation of the government crowding out the private sector on the financial market is a dangerous recipe for disaster, since it will make the economy stagnate and eventually shrink.”
She invited the youth to enroll in the institute’s flagship Wilton Course and other programmes as well as a newly introduced two-day brush-up-skills programme for practitioners.
Justice Avril Lovelace-Johnson of the Court of Appeal, who was guest speaker, told the graduands to look for opportunities to establish themselves in their chosen vocations, saying in spite of the wailings over economic hardships, weddings, birthday parties and other activities are held each week from which they could profit.
She encouraged them to start small, avoid borrowing from the banks but to seek more suitable avenues to build up capital, adding that “after the euphoria of today, things are going to hit you like a splash of cold water,” but there is hope.
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